Thursday, November 29, 2012

Medieval Hack has gone and got itself a
new working name, Feudal Anarchy, a title ripped from recent academic
debates that have buried the idea of a stable, dullish thing called
“feudalism”. (We are lining up with the more gameable strain that
emphasizes the chaotic mafia-like view of how things were likely run
in the High Middle Ages).

Since those of us working on the game
primarily play old school D&D-like campaigns, quite naturally the
game has evolved in directions that support campaigns with some
of those elements. Emphasis on the “some” since the design frame
of the game has some departure points–fewer and more mythical
powerful monsters, more limited site-based exploration, a greater
emphasis on the PCs role and station in society etc.--from that style
of play.

Which naturally leads us to be thinking a lot more intentionally about how we can get the high-player agency,
dangerous, non-linear “sandboxy” elements while keeping the
game's more focused flavor. And that means trying to wrap our heads
around different kinds of campaigns for Feudal Anarchy--and how to
support them in the rules.

Some examples:

Local Sandbox. The players are
mostly assumed to have their adventures in a small, bounded sandbox
say a barony, county, or other region generally walkable in a few
days or a single week. The campaign dynamics revolve around a mix of
news hooks, site-based exploration, and to a greater degree than some
other fantasy games a web of personal relationships. This kind of
sandbox thrives on small details and is thus generally smaller and
more bounded geographically than most fantasy game campaigns. (To
date both Ulfland and Evan's Cocanha playtest campaigns are examples of this
kind of campaign).

The random fief/realm generator can
spit out counties, earldoms, manors, towns, monasteries, megalith,
weathered ruins, etc to help speed or guide the creation process. We
have also developed a subsystem to quickly generate the broad
brushstrokes of a big cast of NPCs--and their broader relationship
web (who hates who, whose plotting against what, etc). We still need
a system to generate period-appropriate events en masse.

The Roadshow. This is a sandbox
mode where the players are wandering Europe. The game hardwires
certain non-linear incentives (primarily in the Magic chapter) to
getting to other places: gaining new knowledge of the “magical”
powers of different saints at pilgrimage sites, shrines, cathedrals,
etc; finding new demons and black magical knowledge; and hunting rare
herbs and alchemical components. The characters are mostly footloose
for various period-appropriate reasons (perhaps they are on
pilgrimage, fleeing serfdom, or on a long circuitous trip to a
distant city) with various adventures along the way.

Warband. Somewhat similar to
above in that it assumes a high degree of roving (can in fact be
combined like all these modes). In this case the PCs lead (or are
part of larger NPC force) a free company, bandit band, or other
warband. A more combat oriented game with copious usage of the mass
battle, siege and other rules. We are developing a special set of
rules to handle small battle combats without miniatures (and are more
interactive and less abstract than the mass battle rules). Also
special rules for resource management and retinues in general.

Marco Polo. More trading
(perhaps with some exploration) focused campaign that combines
elements of above. The players could have a home town/port that they
have local adventures on but play is mostly focused on turning
profits on a grand circuit. Simple long distance and commodity trade
system and a mishaps table combined with some of the warband and
roadshow mechanics will support this.

Off to the Crusade. Traveling to
the Crusades in the Levant was a long, arduous journey often filled
with much turmoil and chaos—i.e. great gaming material. Both the
land route through Central Europe, the Balkans, Byzantine Empire,
etc. and the sea route through the hotly contested Mediterranean
(with ports of call along the way) present enormous adventuring
opportunities.

This type of campaign could essentially
be a mix of both the Road Show and Warband with the possibility of a
final climatic phase using the Abstract Mass Battle Rules we have
currently for the game. Deus Vult.

Of course like all categorizations of
things that tend to be messy and evolve on their own (human that is)
the different sandboxes here can overlap, vary in specific character
or even be phases in a campaign's evolution as players' goals/desires
change.

Thoughts, oh peanut gallery? Any
suggestions for different categories or supporting mechanics? Things
you'd like to see or just plain don't like in there?

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Trying to get my blogging sea legs back
again I seem to have stopped suffering from the “not having much sufficiently different to say” problem (a sclerotic affliction that seems to affect
a rather large number of gaming blogs that age past three) to the
more germane, if somewhat manic publishing quandary of having a spate
of things I am so pumped about writing out that this thought train
begets that thought train—and the danger of “option paralysis”
starts to set in.

Writing out a rather detailed analysis
this morning of how the Hill Cantons campaign evolved between its
three major play groups (and 3.5 years) I was struck by how similar
the overall arcs where between each of them. Though each (sub)campaign was/is very different in feel by dint of the wonderfully
deviant and unique stamp each group of players brought to the table,
all three groups--the Austin, San Antonio home, and Google Plus
(which just celebrated its one year anniversary) parties--have seemed
to fall into the the same broad brush strokes patterns when I put my
mind to it.

Phase One: Buffet Period. Lots
of roaming around the map, bouncing around, feeling out the walls of
the sandbox metaphorically. Explorations are generally quick and
limited, popping into one place for a session then another. A good
deal of time is usually spent figuring out what to do especially in
the beginning of a session. Generally a somewhat dangerous period for
the PCs as they are low level and feeling out the “danger contours”
of the sandbox.

Phase Two: Settling In. The
group becomes more focused and goal oriented. Leadership or group
decision dynamics start to settle in and become stable (though this
can be unsettled when differences start to set in later). A home base
“in town” is found and generally stuck to for a while. The group
starts to build relationships with NPCs: patrons, useful
contacts/sources, hired help, etc. Money and other resources are
still pretty limited but growing and starting to allow for more
choice.

Phase Three: Long Haul. Usually
the group becomes fixated on some kind of long focused exploration
arc, thoroughly exploring one site or “quest”. Fatalities start
to ramp up again as the more dangerous areas of the big site/quest
are reached. The party is slowly, but surely gaining power and
resources. The home base may be upgraded and the hireling list starts
to take on the appearance of a private army.

Phase Four: Rock to Rock. The
long arc plays out and then the group starts bouncing around from
sites or hooks again. Usually shorter bouts but with more focus on
party-derived goals. The party will either stay in this pattern for a
while, jump back into the previous phase (but never with the same
intensity of purpose) or move on to the next.

Phase Five: Maturing Goals.
Players start really digging into long-term goals of their own
devising. Great long schemes come into being with some significant time spent out of session dealing with individual player's machinations. Some divisions may start arising as the players find themselves leaning in one direction
or the other about where to put game time into. The characters are solidly mid-level now and PC death
is rare. (Hireling/henchmen--who stay in a lower power rang--death
though can skyrocket in the face of the ever-mounting dangers.)

I feel like there are more phases
beyond this last settling phase. To be honest I just haven't gotten there
yet with any of the three groups (and that reminds me that I want so
desperately to get the home face-to-face group back playing in the
next month), but I seem to remember back in the hoary day that Phase
Five mature goals begin taking on long roots and the players become
big name players who are increasingly as directive as the GM in where
the campaign grows.

Now obviously these patterns could be
totally specific to how I run a game and the kinds of players I like
to roll with, but it does make me wonder if people who run similar
campaigns over long periods of time are seeing patterns. Are they
ballpark similar, wholly or partially divergent or what?

What dynamics have you seen develop at
your table and do you feel that they have some kind of distinctness
to them that you can generalize from?

Friday, November 2, 2012

Writing, designing and playtesting
Medieval Hack has taken up an enormous block of my playing time.
Though the blog has been neglected I'm not in the least perturbed,
playing and building a game from the bottom up has been hella
enjoyable.

We had a chance to play twice with
a new set of skirmish and small battle rules I developed for the
game. Because we want to support players living vicariously as petty
warlords we are designing a number of systems that focus on the fortunes and dilemmas of running a smallish warband (among other rather sandbox mechanics).

We needed something versatile
that can be played either with or without minis (especially given the
large amount of play we do on the ether) and I'm happy to say they
seem to work well to date.

Last night saw the first run in Evan's somewhat fantastical Languedoc, with
our ruffian band of down and out knights. We have been
trying—stupidly given its immense size and sheer lethality—to
slay the monstrous fire-breathing bull of Onachus (mother of the
equally dreaded Tarrasque).

After a near TPK earlier this week, we
got serious—spending an entire winter building a ballista and
convincing the Viscount to lend us a small army. Upshot is that with
said small army we managed to whip it only losing a handful of
men—one of the most satisfying victories of my playing career.

This morning I got a chance to run it
with minis, simulating a revenge raid by the Fian Gosse banneret Sir
Kavan. Using the recent chaos in the barony as something of a
pretext, brash Sir Kavan (pictured in yellow) led his retinue and neighbor
Sir Tristan (in the purple and white) into the neighboring barony to
steal back “his” prize bull, Terce. Accompanied by Brother
Kadfel, his band made its way to Sir Modoc's manorial village to
repossess the bull.

But of course Sir Modoc gave
battle, rushing forward with his many mounted sergeants, footmen and
hirsute hillmen levy. (Each figure represents a squad of five and a
simple system converts attack and defense values from the percentile,
BRP-like rpg foundation.)

Long story short, Sir Kavan's men met
the charge, did very well at first scoring hits and knocking a number
of their numerically stronger enemy out of the fight (it takes two
hits in the system) in the first three turns. But turn four and five
turned south for Sir Kavan's host and both knight squads were knocked
out. The attacks caused a cascade of panic through the warband with
literally every single one of the survivors losing their nerve and
breaking in the following two rounds.

While totally whipped, the two knights
were exceedingly lucky on the Out of the Fight charts for post-battle casualties, rolling high and coming out with
only one fatality and a number of serious injuries. Despondently Sir
Kavan and Tristan await their fate in the oubliette of the cruel Sir
Modoc.